Animal Experiments: EU Law

John Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the implementation of EU directives on animal experimentation; and if she will make a statement.

Lynne Featherstone: The Government welcomes the new Directive which will strengthen the protection of animals used in scientific procedures, harmonise the regulations across all 27 EU member states, and promote the development of alternatives to the use of animals in research. We believe it will provide a practical framework for the regulation of animal testing in Europe, setting a benchmark for the rest of the world.
	In line with Government policy on the implementation of European legislation, we propose to “copy out” most of the provisions of the directive. There are, however, a number of areas in which we intend to retain current stricter United Kingdom standards. For example, we propose to retain special protection for dogs, cats and horses as well as non-human primates and to retain all current United Kingdom care and accommodation standards that are stricter than those set out in Annex III to the directive. All are justified on animal welfare grounds or to maintain public confidence that animals used in experiments and testing will continue to receive a very high level of protection.

Antisocial Behaviour Orders

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many antisocial behaviour injunctions were issued in (a) England and Wales, (b) Nottinghamshire and (c) Ashfield constituency in the last three years.

James Brokenshire: Data on antisocial behaviour injunctions granted under Section 153 of the Housing Act 1996 to social landlords in England is shown in the table. The total numbers of injunctions issued in England includes those issued to local authority (LA) landlords and to private registered providers (PRP) which own or manage more than 1,000 units of stock. However, data on injunctions issued to PRP landlords is collected at national level, but not at local authority level so the figures provided for Nottinghamshire refer only to injunctions issued to LA landlords. No data is yet available for the financial year 2011-12.
	The Welsh Government collected information centrally on antisocial behaviour injunctions up to 31 March 2011 covering injunctions granted to social landlords in Wales against their tenants. These include all injunctions granted for reasons of antisocial behaviour under Sections 152 (local authorities) and 153 (local authorities and RSLs) of the Housing Act 1996. Social landlords were granted 121 injunctions in 2009-10 and 134 in 2010-11. No data is available for the financial year 2011-12.

Parliamentary Private Secretaries: Visits Abroad

Chris Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will list the occasions since May 2010 on which her Parliamentary Private Secretary has travelled overseas with him or on her behalf.

Damian Green: The Home Secretary's Parliamentary Private Secretary has not travelled overseas with her or on her behalf on any occasion since May 2010.

Police

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  what assessment she has made of the effect of introducing compulsory fitness tests on police forces; and what plans she has to adapt the test to differentiate according to age;
	(2)  what plans she has to introduce compulsory fitness tests for police officers; and what procedures she plans to introduce for officers who fail the test.

Nick Herbert: holding answer 28 June 2012
	The recommendations on fitness testing in Tom Winsor's Independent Review of Police Officer and Staff Remuneration and Conditions have been referred to the police negotiating machinery for consideration, where I would expect these issues to be discussed in detail before a recommendation is made.
	Tom Winsor included this recommendation in the Policy Equality Statement in his report which states that, in his view, the test is justifiable because it is job related and does not have a detrimental effect on people on the grounds of age or sex.
	The Home Secretary will consider carefully the potential equality impact of any recommendations on annual fitness tests for officers in accordance with her legal responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010.

Parliamentary Private Secretaries: Visits Abroad

Chris Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list any occasions since May 2010 on which his parliamentary private secretary has travelled overseas with him or on his behalf.

Owen Paterson: My parliamentary private secretary has not accompanied me on overseas visits nor has he deputised for me on any such visits.

Embassies: Members

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs for what reason his Department's consulate in Malaga refuses to accept emails or faxes from hon. and right hon. Members.

David Lidington: The Malaga Consulate, and other overseas posts, routinely respond to emails or faxes from hon. and right hon. Members. Due to consular confidentiality, however, posts cannot always share full details of consular cases with third parties, including hon. and right hon. Members, if not authorised to do so by the individual who is receiving consular assistance.

Middle East

Philip Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps he is taking to ensure Hamas accept and abide by the Quartet Principles. [R]

Alistair Burt: We do not talk to Hamas. It remains our position that Hamas must make credible movement towards the Quartet Principles of renouncing violence, recognise Israel and accept previously signed agreements. This remains the benchmark against which its intentions should be judged. If, through the reconciliation process with Fatah, Hamas supports a new Palestinian government which rejects violence and pursues a negotiated peace then that may be a good first step. But we will judge them by their actions as well as their words.

Parliamentary Private Secretaries: Visits Abroad

Chris Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on which occasions his parliamentary private secretary has travelled overseas with him or on his behalf since May 2010.

David Lidington: As set out in the Ministerial Code, Departments publish, at least quarterly, details of all travel overseas by Ministers. Foreign and Commonwealth Office information can be found at:
	http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/publications-and-documents/transparency-and-data1/hospitality/#Ministers
	As also set out in the code, at paragraph 3.11:
	“Where it is proposed to take a Parliamentary Private Secretary on an official visit overseas, the Prime Minister’s approval is required. Official overseas travel by a Parliamentary Private Secretary should be exceptional.”
	The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the. Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), has not been accompanied by his Parliamentary Private Secretary on any visits overseas. Nor has my hon. Friend the Member for Broadland (Mr Simpson), travelled overseas on his behalf.

Excise Duties: Fuels

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether his Department has been asked to contribute any underspends to meet the costs of deferring the rise in fuel duty.

Bob Neill: All Whitehall Departments may routinely accumulate under-spends for a number of business reasons; this money may be subsequently redeployed towards other Government priorities. My Department has previously been a beneficiary of this cross-Whitehall process—for example, as illustrated by the extra funding for the Growing Places Fund announced in March 2012.
	Consideration of these matters is decided later on in the financial year.

Public Expenditure

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government 
	(1)  with reference to the speech by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury of 23 April 2012 at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, what progress his Department has made on identifying a proportion of its resource budget that can be re-prioritised; what steps he has taken to identify such funds; and which parts of his Department's resource budget he has identified as suitable for re-prioritisation;
	(2)  what discussions he has had with his Department's agencies and the non-departmental bodies for which he is responsible on the contribution they will make to identifying resource budget for possible re-prioritisation;
	(3)  when he will make public the areas of his Department's resource budget he has identified for possible re-prioritisation; and when he plans to report to the Communities and Local Government Select Committee on the outcome of this exercise.

Bob Neill: My Department is working with the Treasury to agree contingency plans as set out in ‘Improving Spending Control’:
	http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/improving_spending_control.pdf
	Plans and options for reprioritisation will not be published. They should be “live” plans that are reassessed and updated on an ongoing basis.

High-speed Broadband

Neil Parish: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she is taking to ensure rural areas have access to reliable and high-speed broadband.

Richard Benyon: DEFRA is working with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and Broadband Delivery UK to meet our target to have the best superfast broadband in Europe by 2015. The Government's £530 million rural broadband investment will provide 90% of premises with superfast broadband, and everyone else with standard broadband of at least two megabits per second.
	The Government's £20 million Rural Community Broadband Fund provides grant support to enable communities to access superfast broadband in the final 10% of hard to reach locations.

Agricultural Vehicles

Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 11 June 2012, Official Report, column 34W, on agricultural vehicles, where such data is likely to be held; and if her Department will begin to collect this data.

James Paice: DEFRA does not hold this information and has no plans to capture it.

LIBOR

Frank Dobson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will ensure that none of the members of his proposed Joint Committee have worked for or advised any of the banks being investigated in the Libor fixing scandal.

Mark Hoban: The composition of this joint committee would be a matter for the Houses of Parliament, not the Government.
	All Members of both Houses are required to publish their interests in the respective Registers of Interests for both Houses.

New Businesses: Bexley

David Evennett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many new businesses registered for VAT in Bexleyheath and Crayford constituency in each of the last three years.

David Gauke: No estimate is available for the number of new businesses registered for VAT in Bexleyheath and Crayford constituency in each of the last three years.
	Previously, the number of new VAT registrations was published by the Department for Businesses Enterprise and Regulatory Reform but this was discontinued in 2008. It has been replaced by the Office of National Statistics series ‘UK Business: Activity, Size and Location’, which combines VAT and PAYE registered businesses.
	The total number of businesses registered for either VAT or PAYE in the Bexleyheath and Crayford constituency is given in the following table:
	
		
			  Total number of businesses registered for either VAT or PAYE (at 30 March in each year) 
			 2008 2,725 
			 2009 2,665 
			 2010 2,095 
			 2011 2,585 
		
	
	Changes between the years reflect the net number of new VAT or PAYE registrations and de-registrations.

Lost Working Days

David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what the average number of working days lost per person was in (a) his Department and (b) each of its agencies in each of the last three years.

Gregory Barker: The Average Working Days Lost (AWDL) per person due to sickness absence in the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is shown in the following table.
	
		
			 Period AWDL 
			 July 2009 to June 2010 4.3 
			 July 2010 to June 2011 3.1 
			 July 2011 to June 2012 3.6 
		
	
	DECC does not have any agencies for which it is responsible.

Public Expenditure

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change with reference to the speech by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury of 23 April 2012 at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, 
	(1)  what progress his Department has made on identifying a proportion of its resource budget which can be re-prioritised; what steps he has taken to identify such funds; and which parts of his Department's resource budget he has identified as suitable for re-prioritisation;
	(2)  what discussions he has had with his Department's agencies and the non-departmental bodies for which he is responsible on the contribution they will make to identifying resource budget for possible re-prioritisation;
	(3)  when he will make public the areas of his Department's resource budget he has identified for possible re-prioritisation; and when he plans to report to the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee on the outcome of this exercise.

Gregory Barker: The Department is working with HM Treasury to agree contingency plans as set out in ‘Improving Spending Control’:
	http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/improving_spending_control.pdf
	Plans and options for reprioritisation will not be published. They should be "live" plans that are reassessed and updated on an on-going basis.

Rescue Services

Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how the new national centre at Farnham in Surrey will monitor small boats used by holidaymakers in Scotland that do not have fixed radar location equipment following the implementation of planned closures of maritime rescue and co-ordination centres.

Michael Penning: The Maritime Operations Centre (MOC) located at Fareham in Hampshire will take responsibility for managing the Coastguard network as a whole ensuring that workload and resources are in balance at all times.
	Small boats and leisure vessels can request safety information or raise the alarm if they are in difficulties by means of radio equipment. The modernisation programme for HM Coastguard will not reduce in any way the radio coverage currently provided therefore there will be no change in the availability of assistance and advice to holiday makers and small boat users in Scotland. Co-ordination centres in Belfast, Stornoway, Lerwick and Aberdeen will be manned 24/7 by Coastguard Officers. As a result of the modernisation programme additional officers from across the network will be able to reinforce these staffing levels and or take on other important but non urgent work when incidents occur.
	In the future the Maritime and Coastguard Agency will be putting more Coastguard Officers into coastal communities and it will be these officers who will develop local contacts and local intelligence. They will be a direct point of contact for the small craft and leisure community.

Blood: Diseases

Eric Ollerenshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what guidance he plans to issue to commissioners and acute trusts on the development of collaborative care pathways for patients diagnosed with sepsis;
	(2)  what consideration his Department has given to the development of a national sepsis registry;
	(3)  what steps his Department is taking to measure outcomes and long-term health issues for patients diagnosed with sepsis;
	(4)  what steps his Department is taking to improve awareness of sepsis and to encourage early diagnosis;
	(5)  what representations his Department has received from health professionals and stakeholder organisations on the development by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence of quality standards relating to treatment of sepsis;
	(6)  what assessment he has made of the potential effect on patient outcomes of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence quality standard on surgical site infection and sepsis.

Simon Burns: The Department supports existing international guidance on sepsis and although there is no specific guidance on sepsis this informed the Department's document “Start Smart Then Focus”. A copy has been placed in the Library. This recommends that if there is evidence of bacterial infection, local guidelines should be used to initiate prompt effective antibiotic treatment within one hour of diagnosis (or as soon as possible) in patients with life threatening infections.
	In addition, “Start Smart Then Focus” recommends auditing the time to treatment to ensure effective local performance. Information on sepsis is not collected centrally and there are no plans to develop a registry.
	Quality Standards support better outcomes for patients by promoting improvement in the quality of national health service care. Quality Standards are derived from the best available evidence, such as National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance and other evidence sources accredited by NHS Evidence. A Quality Standard for Surgical Site Infection and Sepsis was referred to NICE in March 2012 and is in development.
	The Department has received correspondence from the UK Sepsis Group on the development of an NHS Quality Standard relating to the treatment of sepsis. In 2011, NICE jointly with the National Quality Board ran an engagement exercise on the proposed library of NHS Quality Standards. Six organisations provided responses to the public consultation which referred to the treatment of sepsis.
	The NHS Commissioning Board will be expected to use these standards to underpin the Commissioning Outcomes Framework which will be used to help raise awareness of this issue, improve patient safety and as the basis for producing guidance for commissioners.

Health: Finance

Harriett Baldwin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what basic principles underlie the formula used in his consultation on the (a) interim recommendations for the preferred distribution of public health resources from the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation, (b) health premium and (c) proposed conditions on the ring-fenced public health grant.

Anne Milton: The Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation was commissioned by the Secretary of State for Health, my right hon. Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr Lansley), to develop a formula for the allocation of the public health budget to local authorities relative to population health need, based on the principle of enabling action to improve population-wide health, and to reduce health inequalities.
	A limited number of conditions on the ring-fenced public health grant have been proposed to ensure the appropriate balance between giving local authorities the freedom to spend the grant as they see fit and the need to ensure transparency and accountability in its use.
	At the end of the financial year local authorities will be required to confirm that the grant has been spent in accordance with the grant conditions, including reporting any underspends.
	The health premium, is public health funding that supports non-mandated services. This includes both the core, needs-based allocation, and an incentive component. Local authorities will be rewarded if they make progress in improving the health of the local population, based on elements of the Public Health Outcomes Framework. The incentive will be weighted to areas facing the greatest challenges.

NHS: Drugs

Andrew Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment his Department has made of the role of homecare in improving patient compliance and adherence to NHS-funded treatment.

Paul Burstow: The Department has made no such assessment.
	Homecare has two main meanings.
	It can mean a social care service, which covers, the provision of personal care—assistance with tasks such as bathing, dressing and the preparation and eating of meals—to people in their own homes. It is not a medical or health service. Carers may help service users to take prescribed medication, in accordance with prescribers’ instructions. However, they cannot require service users to comply, with or adhere to treatment regimes.
	It can also mean a medicine homecare delivery service, which delivers ongoing medicine supplies and, where necessary, associated care, initiated by a hospital prescribes direct to a patient's home with their consent. The purpose of the service, is to improve patient care and choice for clinical treatments. Typically, patients who receive this type of homecare are those with chronic conditions and stable treatment regimens that do not require acute care input.

Primary Care Trusts: Redundancy

Nick Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many employees left primary care trusts in the North East (a) between 1 June 2010 and 31 March 2011 and (b) in financial year 2011-12; and how many such staff were subsequently rehired elsewhere in the NHS.

Simon Burns: The total number of leavers from primary care trusts (PCTs) in the north-east is not available for the periods requested. The data is extracted from the turnover tables at organisational level that are published on a quarterly basis by the Health and Social Care Information Centre. During the period from April 2010 to April 2011,1,265 staff left PCTs in the north-east.
	The Health and Social Care Information Centre will publish data for the period April 2011 to April 2012 on 24 July 2012.
	Information on the number of PCT staff in the north-east who left the national health service and subsequently re-employed elsewhere by NHS organisations is difficult to obtain from the Electronic Staff Record and could be produced only at disproportionate cost.

Public Expenditure

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health with reference to the speech by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury of 23 April 2012 at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, 
	(1)  what progress his Department has made on identifying a proportion of its resource budget that can be re-prioritised; what steps he has taken to identify such funds; and which parts of his Department's resource budget he has identified as suitable for re-prioritisation;
	(2)  what discussions he has had with his Department's agencies and the non-departmental bodies for which he is responsible on the contribution they will make to identifying resource budget for possible re-prioritisation;
	(3)  when he will make public the areas of his Department's resource budget he has identified for possible re-prioritisation; and when he plans to report to the Health Select Committee on the outcome of this exercise.

Simon Burns: The Department is working with HM Treasury to agree contingency plans as set out in “Improving Spending Control”:
	www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/improving_spending_control.pdf
	Plans and options for reprioritisation will not be published. They should be “live” plans that are reassessed and updated on an ongoing basis.

Transplant Surgery

Diane Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to replace the post of National Clinical Director for Transplantation; and if he will make a statement.

Anne Milton: Chris Rudge, the former National Clinical Director of Transplantation, has been appointed to chair a Transitional Steering Group (TSG) to help maintain the momentum to achieve the target of a 50%, increase in organ donation rates by 2013. We are taking action in a number of areas to strengthen the donation and transplant programme, with donor rates now around 35%, higher than 2007-08 and continuing to rise.
	NHS Blood and Transplant are also developing a strategy post March 2013, building on the Organ Donation Taskforce recommendations, which will establish them as the national organisation for organ donation and transplantation. The new strategy will build on what has been achieved so far and identify new ways to make sure that as many people as possible in the UK receive the transplant they need, with added emphasis on the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities.

Higher Education: Innovation

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps he is taking to encourage UK businesses to exploit innovation and creativity through universities.

David Willetts: The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills supports a range of programmes to encourage and incentivise the application and commercialisation of research generated by the UK research base. These programmes are supported both directly by BIS, and also through organisations that it funds and sponsors, such as the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the Research Councils and the Technology Strategy Board.
	Such programmes run by the Technology Strategy Board include the Collaborative R&D projects, the Knowledge Transfer Partnership programme, and the establishment of an elite network of Catapult Centres in which the Government is investing over £200 million.
	The Government is committed to accelerating the commercialisation of research, following announcements in the autumn statement, and the subsequent publication of the ‘Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth and the Strategy for UK Life Sciences’.

Office of Fair Trading: Competition Commission

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many full-time equivalent staff were employed in the (a) Office for Fair Trading and (b) Competition Commission in the last month in which figures are available; and what estimate he has made of the likely number of full-time equivalent staff to be employed in the proposed Competition Markets Authority.

Norman Lamb: holding answer 21 June 2012
	As at 31 May 2012, the Office of Fair Trading employed 542 full-time equivalent staff and 70 agency, interim or specialist contractor non-payroll staff. As at 31 May 2012 the Competition Commission employed 130 full-time equivalent staff and 15 agency, interim or specialist contractor non-payroll staff. The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, my right hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Vince Cable), expects to appoint the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) Chair-designate in summer 2012. The Chair-designate will oversee the process of designing the organisational structure of the CMA, in consultation with Government, the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission so that the CMA is ready to take on its full functions, staff and new cases in April 2014. This process will take account of the need to retain the professional skills and expertise of staff at the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission.

Parliamentary Private Secretaries: Visits Abroad

Chris Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will list the occasions since May 2010 on which his Parliamentary Private Secretary has travelled overseas with him or on his behalf.

Norman Lamb: There have been none.

Public Expenditure

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to the speech by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury of 23 April 2012 at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, 
	(1)  what progress his Department has made on identifying a proportion of its resource budget that can be re-prioritised; what steps he has taken to identify such funds; and which parts of his Department's resource budget he has identified as suitable for re-prioritisation;
	(2)  what discussions he has had with his Department's agencies and the non-departmental bodies for which he is responsible on the contribution they will make to identifying resource budget for possible re-prioritisation;
	(3)  when he will make public the areas of his Department's resource budget he has identified for possible re-prioritisation; and when he plans to report to the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee on the outcome of this exercise.

Norman Lamb: The Department is working with the Treasury to agree contingency plans as set out in “Improving Spending Control”
	http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/improving_spending_control.pdf
	Plans and options for reprioritisation will not be published. They should be “live” plans that are reassessed and updated on an ongoing basis.

Parliamentary Private Secretaries: Visits Abroad

Chris Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport if he will list the occasions since May 2010 on which his Parliamentary Private Secretary has travelled overseas with him or on his behalf.

Jeremy Hunt: Since May 2010, my Parliamentary Private Secretary, my hon. Friend the Member for Reading East (Mr Wilson), has not accompanied me on any overseas trips or travelled overseas on my behalf.

Atos

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development pursuant to the answer of 18 June 2012, Official Report, column 774W, on Atos, what the total value per year was of each contract between his Department and Atos in (a) 2009, (b) 2010, (c) 2011 and (d) 2012.

Alan Duncan: DFID has centrally let six contracts with Atos since 2009. Details of the value per year of each contract are provided in the following table.
	Total monetary value is the total value across the lifetime of the contract. Two of the contracts include funds and grants to be managed by Atos.
	Two of the six contracts are framework agreements. Mini-competitions-are run among all of the suppliers on the framework to award contracts for specific requirements. The framework agreement itself therefore has a nil value commitment and no guarantee of the value of business which may be awarded.
	
		
			 Contract title Total monetary value (£ million) Contract start date Contract end date Value per year (£ million per FY) 
			 Comprehensive Agricultural and Rural Development Facility Management Unit 1.04 30 August 2009 28 February 2010 2009-10: 1.04 
			 Safety and Access to Justice programme 17.76 14 March 2010 13 March 2014 2010/11: 4.75(1) 
			     2011/12: 5.12(1) 
			 Tracking Trends in Ethiopia's Civil Society Sector Programme 0.73 18 November 2010 8 April 2012 2010/11: 0.21 
			     2011/12: 0.52 
			 Federal Public Administration Reform programme in Nigeria 21.76 24 January 2011 24 January 2016 2010/11: 1.33(2) 
			     2011/12: 4.22(2) 
			 Fragile and Conflict Affected States Framework Agreement No committed value 1 February 2012 31 January 2014 n/a 
			 Governance and Security Framework Agreement No committed value 1 March 2012 28 February 2014 n/a 
			 n/a = Not applicable. 1 Total monetary value includes 1.5 managed funds and grants. 2 Total monetary value includes 8.98 managed funds and grants.

Prisoner Escapes

Nick de Bois: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners have escaped from custody (a) during transfer between prisons and (b) in other circumstances in each month of the last five years.

Crispin Blunt: The number of escapes has been falling since 1995 when central recording of escapes began. Table 1 shows the number of escapes(1), by month over the last five financial years from (a) prison establishment, (b) prison escort(2), and (c) contractor escort(3) (which includes escapes from court(4)). Over this period there was just one escape of a prisoner during transfer between prisons. This occurred in May 2011.
	(1 )An escape is defined as when a prisoner is at liberty for 15 minutes or more before recapture, or an offence is committed during an escape lasting less than 15 minutes.
	(2) A prison escort is an escort performed by prison staff, often to hospitals.
	(3) A contractor escort is one undertaken on behalf of NOMS by a contractor to a court, originating from either a police station or a prison, or transferring prisoners between prisons.
	(4) Escapes from contractor escorts include escapes from court; the majority of contractor escapes are from insecure docks rather than escort vehicles.
	
		
			 Table 1: escapes, by month and escape type, from April2012 
			  Prison establishment Prison escort Contractor escort 
			 April 2007 0 0 2 
			 May 2007 0 0 1 
			 June 2007 0 0 1 
			 August 2007 1 0 3 
			 September 2007 2 0 1 
			 October 2007 0 1 2 
			 November 2007 0 0 2 
			 December 2007 0 0 1 
			 January 2008 0 1 2 
			 March 2008 1 0 1 
			 April 2008 0 0 3 
			 May 2008 0 1 1 
			 June 2008 0 0 1 
			 October 2008 0 1 2 
			 November 2008 0 1 1 
			 December 2008 0 0 3 
			 January 2009 0 1 1 
			 February 2009 0 0 1 
			 March 2009 1 0 2 
			 April 2009 0 1 0 
			 May 2009 1 0 1 
			 July 2009 1 0 1 
			 September 2009 0 0 2 
			 October 2009 0 0 3 
			 November 2009 0 0 1 
			 December 2009 0 1 0 
			 February 2010 0 0 3 
			 March 2010 0 1 1 
		
	
	
		
			 May 2010 0 1 2 
			 June 2010 1 0 1 
			 July 2010 0 0 2 
			 August 2010 0 0 2 
			 December 2010 0 0 1 
			 January 2011 0 0 1 
			 March 2011 0 0 1 
			 May 2011 0 1 1 
			 June 2011 0 0 4 
			 July 2011 0 0 3 
			 October 2011 2 0 0 
			 November 2011 0 0 2 
			 December 2011 0 0 1 
			 January 2012 0 1 2 
			 March 2012 0 0 1 
			 Total 10 12 67 
			 Note: Months when there are zero escapes in all three categories are not shown.

Prisoners

Nick de Bois: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners convicted of murder are held in (a) closed and (b) open prisons.

Crispin Blunt: As at 31 March 2012 there were 4,821 prisoners under sentence for murder in closed prisons and 363 in open prisons in England and Wales. The figures for open prisons include those held in open prisons/YOIs and the relevant parts of multi-site establishments. It does not include those held in semi-open prisons or in small (under 50 place) open units at closed prisons.
	These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
	The numbers of such prisoners held in Category D/open conditions will depend on how many of those prisoners pass the necessary robust risk assessment and the availability of spaces in the open prison estate at any one time.
	All murderers will be serving indeterminate sentences. Depending on the minimum sentence or "tariff' and the risk they pose, such prisoners, move through their sentence via a series of progressive transfers into lower security establishments in the closed prison estate. The decision to transfer indeterminate sentenced prisoners (ISPs) to open conditions is a categorisation decision which is a matter for the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Mr Clarke). The Secretary of State may take this decision after seeking advice from the Parole Board or executively where the prisoners have demonstrated exceptional progress in closed conditions.
	ISPs are normally considered for recategorisation to open conditions no earlier than three years before the end of their tariff.
	Moving ISPs to open conditions is an important part of the offender's rehabilitation. It tests their suitability for eventual release while still maintaining many of the restrictions of a closed prison. Should the offender's behaviour in open conditions give rise to concerns, he/she can be returned to closed conditions.

Prisoners

Nick de Bois: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what account is taken of the views of the family of the victim in deciding to transfer a person convicted of murder to an open prison.

Crispin Blunt: Under the statutory victim contact scheme operated by Probation Trusts, by virtue of Section 35 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004, victims of certain serious sexual or violent crimes, including victims bereaved by murder, where the offender has been sentenced to 12 months imprisonment or more may elect to receive information about key developments in the offenders sentence. This includes notification that a prisoner is being considered for a move to an open prison and the outcome.
	When a prisoner is being considered for allocation to open conditions, where the victim lives is one of the factors taken into account in determining to which open prison he should be transferred, if a transfer is approved.

Prisons: Mother and Baby Units

Nick de Bois: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many mothers with babies were held in prison in each of the last five years.

Crispin Blunt: The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) began to collect information centrally on how many mothers with babies were held in prisons in England and Wales from 2010. The average number of women in prison with babies on a Mother and Baby Unit from June 2010 to May 2012 was 49. Data for 2007-2009 is not available.

Unpaid Fines: Sentencing

Nick de Bois: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) women and (b) men were held in prison for non-payment of fines in the last five years.

Crispin Blunt: The following table shows the numbers of women and men held in prisons in England and Wales, as at 30 June of each year, for non-payment of fines. These figures are published annually in table A1.1 of the Offender Management Statistics Annual tables available at:
	http://www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/prisons-and-probation/oms-quarterly
	
		
			  2007 2008 2009 2009 (1) 2010 2011 
			 Female 6 11 14 13 18 11 
			 Male 62 99 99 86 111 118 
			 (1) Due to the introduction of a new prison IT system in 2010 prison population data is now taken from a different source. The 2009 figures from both the old and new systems have been presented to aid comparison. 
		
	
	These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Victim Support Schemes

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what estimate he has made of the administrative cost of transferring responsibility for commissioning victims' services to police and crime commissioners; and if he will make a statement.

Crispin Blunt: In January when the consultation "Getting it right for victims and witnesses" was published, we stated our aim that administration costs would not exceed 10% of the total victims' funding provided to police and crime commissioners (PCCs). We now believe that actual costs will be much less. The office of the PCC will already have the infrastructure and skills to commission services in respect of community safety, and adding victims' services to this ought to be achieved at minimal cost.
	The current process through which providers bid to central Government for funding is not without bureaucracy and nor is it free of costs.

Victim Support Schemes

Yvonne Fovargue: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he expects to publish his Department's response to the consultation, Getting it right for victims and witnesses.

Crispin Blunt: We published the Government response to the consultation on 2 July.

Work Capability Assessments: Appeals

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the cost to his Department was of appeals made to the Tribunal Service against work capability assessment decisions in (a) 2011 and (b) 2012 to date.

Jonathan Djanogly: Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) hears appeals against Department for Work and Pensions decisions on entitlement to employment and support allowance (ESA) (decisions in which the work capability assessment is a key factor) rather than appeals against work capability assessment decisions themselves.
	The total cost of the 189,459 ESA appeals disposed of during the financial year 2011-12 in which the work capability assessment was a factor is estimated £45 million.
	These estimated costs were calculated by multiplying the average cost of an individual First-tier Tribunal—Social Security and Child Support case in 2010-11 (the latest period for which this data is available) by the number of ESA appeals disposed of, in which the work capability assessment was a factor.
	There is currently no information available for the 2012-13 financial year as we have not yet finalised and published the first quarters' financial data to enable an estimate to be provided.

Young Offenders: Enfield

Nick de Bois: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) juvenile offenders and (b) young offenders from the London Borough of Enfield have been held in a (i) secure children's home, (ii) secure training centre and (iii) under 18 young offender institution in each month from May 2005 to April 2012.

Crispin Blunt: Table 1 shows the number of juvenile offenders (aged 10 to 17 years) either sentenced or remanded in custody attached to the Enfield Youth Offending Team (YOT) who have been held in a (i) secure children's home (SCH), (ii) secure training centre (STC) and (iii) under 18 young offender institution (YOI) in each month from May 2005 to April 2012.
	This data has been provided by the Youth Justice Board (YJB). The YJB holds data at the YOT area level, not at the local authority level. YOT area data may cover more than one local authority area.
	Data provided for table 1 is based upon monthly snapshot population data. Therefore one young person who is held more than one month in custody may be shown in more than one month in the table.
	Data from April 2011 onwards are provisional. Data for the financial year 2011-12 will be finalised when the 2011-12 Annual Youth Justice Statistics are published in 2013 and data for the financial year 2012-13 will be finalised in 2014.
	Young adult offenders (aged 18 to 20 years) are not held in secure children's homes, secure training centres, or under 18 young offender institutions. Some juvenile offenders, however, remain in the youth secure estate after they have turned 18 if they have only a short period of their custodial sentence to serve.
	Table 2 shows the number of young adult offenders aged 18 years old from the London borough of Enfield who were held in under 18 young offender institutions. These data have been provided by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS). One month's worth of data was collected centrally in May 2009 and has been available on a bi-monthly basis from September 2010.
	
		
			 Table 1: Number of young people (10-17) in custody attached to Enfield Youth Offending Team by establishment type 
			  Secure Children's Homes Secure Training Centres Young Offender Institutions 
			 May 2005 0 1 23 
			 June 2005 0 1 16 
			 July 2005 0 1 15 
			 August 2005 1 3 15 
			 September 2005 1 5 13 
			 October 2005 0 1 18 
			 November 2005 0 1 20 
			 December 2005 0 2 21 
			 January 2006 0 2 20 
			 February 2006 0 2 23 
			 March 2006 0 2 23 
			 April 2006 2 2 21 
			 May 2006 1 1 26 
			 June 2006 1 0 22 
			 July 2006 1 0 27 
			 August 2006 1 2 28 
			 September 2006 0 3 28 
			 October 2006 0 1 25 
			 November 2006 0 3 25 
			 December 2006 1 2 26 
			 January 2007 0 3 28 
			 February 2007 0 3 29 
			 March 2007 0 3 24 
			 April 2007 0 2 27 
			 May 2007 0 2 26 
			 June 2007 0 2 25 
			 July 2007 0 2 20 
			 August 2007 1 2 16 
		
	
	
		
			 September 2007 1 3 22 
			 October 2007 0 3 22 
			 November 2007 0 2 22 
			 December 2007 0 1 23 
			 January 2008 0 2 16 
			 February 2008 0 3 17 
			 March 2008 0 2 17 
			 April 2008 0 0 20 
			 May 2008 0 0 20 
			 June 2008 0 2 20 
			 July 2008 0 1 22 
			 August 2008 0 2 19 
			 September 2008 0 2 16 
			 October 2008 0 1 17 
			 November 2008 0 1 18 
			 December 2008 0 1 14 
			 January 2009 0 0 16 
			 February 2009 1 0 19 
			 March 2009 1 0 16 
			 April 2009 1 1 18 
			 May 2009 1 3 17 
			 June 2009 0 3 15 
			 July 2009 0 1 15 
			 August 2009 0 0 16 
			 September 2009 0 2 16 
			 October 2009 0 1 16 
			 November 2009 0 2 11 
			 December 2009 0 0 9 
			 January 2010 0 0 7 
			 February 2010 0 1 12 
			 March 2010 0 0 9 
			 April 2010 0 2 11 
			 May 2010 1 2 13 
			 June 2010 0 2 17 
			 July 2010 0 3 15 
			 August 2010 0 2 14 
			 September 2010 0 3 13 
			 October 2010 0 4 13 
			 November 2010 0 2 14 
			 December 2010 0 3 10 
			 January 2011 0 3 11 
			 February 2011 0 1 18 
			 March 2011 0 2 20 
			 April 2011 1 2 17 
			 May 2011 0 1 14 
			 June 2011 0 1 20 
			 July 2011 0 4 16 
			 August 2011 0 3 17 
			 September 2011 1 4 22 
			 October 2011 0 5 21 
			 November 2011 0 3 26 
			 December 2011 0 3 24 
			 January 2012 0 2 24 
			 February 2012 0 2 19 
			 March 2012 0 3 15 
		
	
	
		
			 April 2012 0 3 12 
			 Notes: 1. The data comes from the Youth Justice Board's Secure Accommodation Clearing House System (SACHS). 2. These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing and may be subject to change over time. 3. The YJB does not hold data at local authority level. However, it does hold data down to Youth Offending Team area, some of which cover more than one local authority area. 4. The table shows the number of young people aged 10-17 attached to the Enfield Youth Offending Team who have been held in a (i) secure children's home, (ii) secure training centre and (iii) under 18 young offender institution in each month since May 2005 to April 2012. 5. This is based upon monthly snapshot population data. Therefore one young person who is held more than one month in custody, may be shown in more than one month in the table below. 6. Please note, data from April 2011 onwards are provisional. Data from April 2011 onwards will be finalised when the 2011-12 Annual Youth Justice Statistics are published in 2013 and data from April 2012 will be finalised in 2014. 
		
	
	
		
			 Table 2: Number of young adult offenders (aged 18) held in under 18 young offender institution attached to London borough of Enfield 
			  Numbers of young adult offenders (held in under 18 YOIs) 
			 May 2009 2 
			 September 2010 0 
			 November 2010 0 
			 January 2011 0 
			 March 2011 1 
			 May 2011 1 
			 July 2011 1 
			 September 2011 1 
			 November 2011 1 
			 January 2012 2 
			 March 2012 2 
			 May 2012 4 
			 Notes: 1. These figures have been drawn from the NOMS administrative IT system, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. 2. Information on offenders’ residences is provided by offenders on reception into prison and recorded on a central IT system. Addresses can include a home address, an address to which offenders intend to return on discharge or next of kin address and these figures are provided in the table above. 3. If no address is given, an offender’s committal court address is used as a proxy for the area in which they are resident. These figures are also included in the table above. No address has been recorded and no court information is available for around 3% of all offenders, these figures are excluded from the table above. 4. One month’s worth of data was collected centrally in May 2009 and has been available on a bi-monthly basis from September 2010.

Armed Forces: Redundancy

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many army personnel were made redundant within (a) three months, (b) six months and (c) one year of qualifying for their full pension rights in the most recent period for which figures are available.

Andrew Robathan: No Army personnel have been selected, within the specified periods, of qualifying for their full pension rights. This is because full pension rights are only granted at the completion of a full military career and all Army personnel within the last three years of their engagement were ineligible for consideration under the redundancy scheme.
	There will, however, be some Army personnel who have been selected, within the specified periods, of qualifying for their immediate pension point, this being the point at which a pension is paid immediately on leaving the Army. Because of the complexity of pension calculations, the exact number of Army personnel affected by this could only be determined by a manual analysis of the records of those selected for redundancy, which could only be provided at disproportionate cost. However, early analysis indicates approximately 55 (roughly 1.4%) of the 3,820 Army personnel selected for redundancy in Tranches 1 and 2 are non-applicants who will be within one year of qualifying for an immediate pension or equivalent on their redundancy exit following a reduction in the qualifying period for the majority of other ranks from 22 years to 18 years enabling many redundees to receive an immediate income for which they would otherwise not have qualified.

Manpower

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what target he has set to reduce headcount across his Department, its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12 and (c) 2012-13; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Robathan: The Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) announced planned reductions in the civilian workforce of 25,000 to be achieved by 2015. This was subsequently increased to about 28,500, as a result of further Defence Transformation decisions announced to the House by the Secretary of State for Defence, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), on 18 July 2011, and will constitute a reduction of one third of pre-SDSR numbers. Figures shown reflect the full time equivalent civilian workforce figures for 1 April 2010, 2011 and 2012, as published in the Quarterly Civilian Personnel Report for 1 April 2012, which can be found at:
	www.dasa.mod.uk
	
		
			  Number Cumulative difference 
			 1 April 2010 85,850 — 
			 1 April 2011 83,060 -2,790 
		
	
	
		
			 1 April 2012 70,940 -14,910

Mental Health

John Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps he is taking to promote good mental health and well-being in his Department.

Andrew Robathan: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) takes the health and well being of both its military and civilian staff very seriously. For military staff, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 26 June 2012, Official Report, column 193-194W, to the hon. Member for North Tyneside (Mrs Glindon). Specifically for civilians, the MOD strives to help them to maintain or improve their health and wellbeing by the promotion of a number of activities, including sport and exercise, healthy eating and the provision of an occupational health and welfare service. A health and welfare champion has recently been appointed at senior level to encourage progress on this agenda.

Property

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the properties and their uses owned or leased by his Department outside the UK and Germany.

Andrew Robathan: A list of all of the Ministry of Defence properties outside the UK and Germany together with their uses, is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Adoption

Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education 
	(1)  what the average time taken was for the adoption process from first application to completion in the latest period for which figures are available;
	(2)  how many adoptions have been completed in (a) the last year for which figures are available and (b) each of the previous 10 years.

Tim Loughton: The only information that the Department collects on prospective adopters is their gender, legal status and relationship status;
	For children adopted during the year ending 31 March 2011, the average time taken between entry into care and adoption was two years and seven months.
	However, within this period, the child will be ‘placed for adoption’, meaning he/she goes to live with the prospective adopters. At this stage, it is for the prospective adopters to apply to the court for an adoption order.
	For children adopted during the year ending 31 March 2011, the average time taken between entry into care and being placed for adoption was one year and three months.
	Further information on the average time between the different stages of the adoption process are shown in Table E2 of the national tables in the publication, “Children looked after by Local Authorities in England (including adoption and care leavers)—year ending 31 March 2011”, which is available on the Department's website via the following link:
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/statistics-by-topic/childrenandfamilies/a00196857/children-looked-after-by-las-in-england
	The numbers of looked after children who were adopted during the years ending 31 March, for the latest 10 years are shown in the following table.
	
		
			 Looked after children who were adopted during the years ending 31 March (1, 2) —Years ending 31 March 2002 to 2011, Coverage: England 
			  Number 
			 2002 3,430 
			 2003 3,540 
			 2004 3,760 
			 2005 3,770 
			 2006 3,700 
			 2007 3,330 
			 2008 3,180 
			 2009 3,330 
			 2010 3,200 
			 2011 3,050 
			 (1) Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. (2) Historical data may differ from older publications. This is mainly due to the implementation of amendments and corrections sent by some local authorities after the publication date of previous materials. Source: SSDA 903

Children in Care

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what estimate his Department has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of looked-after children who have been provided with an independent visitor in the latest period for which figures are available.

Tim Loughton: holding answer 2 July 2012
	Local authorities looking after a child have a duty to appoint a person to be a child's independent visitor where it appears to them to be in the child's interest to do so and where the child wants one.
	Information on the number of looked after children who have been provided with an independent visitor are not collected by this Department.
	The information that is collected by this Department relating to looked after children is published in the Statistical First Release ‘Children Looked After by Local Authorities in England (including adoption and care leavers)—year ending 31 March 2011' which can be found on the Department's website via the following link below.
	http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s001026/index.shtml

Class Sizes

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Education whether his Department is taking steps to decrease the average class size in schools.

Nick Gibb: Current legislation limits the size of an infant class to no more than 30 pupils to one school teacher. There is no class size limit for children aged eight and over and schools are best placed to decide on the shape and size of their classes, based on the resources available to them.
	Each local authority is responsible for managing the supply and demand for primary, and secondary school places in their area. We are aware that, in some areas, there is a significant demand for more places. To support this, the Government is making £15.8 billion of capital funding available to local authorities over the next four years to ensure there are sufficient school places to meet the local need.

Leveson Inquiry

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how much it cost to provide him with legal advice in relation to his appearance at the Leveson Inquiry.

Tim Loughton: holding answer 19 June 2012
	I refer you to the response given by the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, my right hon. Friend the Member for South West Surrey (Mr Hunt), on 21 June 2012, Official Report, column 1088W.

Mental Health

John Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking to promote good mental health and well-being in his Department.

Tim Loughton: The Department for Education has a range of policies and procedures that facilitate the management of health and well-being for employees. Managers are encouraged to proactively implement processes as required with the support of shared services and HR as appropriate. Examples of approach are:
	Attendance: Managers are guided to proactively manage absence which includes reviewing the level and reasons for absence at various trigger points;
	return to work interviews to discuss issues/ potential issues and implement appropriate actions.
	Stress Management: provides good practice guidelines for managers to identify and as far as is reasonably practical, minimise the workplace factors which may lead to stress; supporting colleagues who are experiencing stress.
	Flexible working: the DfE encourages flexible working patterns; managers are required to ensure staff can achieve a good work/life balance and that business objectives are delivered by positive approach to flexible working.
	In addition to contractual leave entitlement, the DfE offers special leave which covers a range of situations when staff may need to be away from work, but that cannot be reasonably accommodated in their annual leave entitlement.
	Additional support available
	Advice and support is available from:
	Medigold—DfE's occupational health provider
	Right CoreCare—DfE's employee assistance provider
	Management information—used to identify trends and appropriate strategies
	The Department encourages staff to join sport and social activities; this includes an annual DfE sports and families day and the opportunity to join in various clubs and social activities across DfE sites

Procurement

Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many contracts issued by his Department were awarded to small and medium-sized enterprises in 2011-12; what proportion that figure represents of all contracts let; and what the monetary value was of such contracts.

Tim Loughton: The Department does not hold contract information centrally and to report on the details of this question would incur disproportional costs.
	From the information that has been published, the number of Department for Education contracts awarded to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME's) from April 2011 to January 2012 was 61. The total spend with SME's in the financial year 2011/12 was £47.6 million.

Publications

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many publications his Department has issued since May 2010; and what the title was of each (a) publication and (b) consultation document issued by his Department since May 2010.

Tim Loughton: The information requested is as follows:
	(a) The Department has issued 15 publications since May 2010. Other information has been published on our website rather than as a printed publication. This is in order to secure value for money and promote wider access to our material. The publications are listed here by title:
	1. Teachers' pension scheme (England and Wales) resource accounts 2009-10; (for the year ended 31 March 2010)
	2. Department for Children, Schools and Families resource accounts 2009-10: (for the year ended 31 March 2010)
	3. The School Food Trust (a charitable company limited by guarantee) annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2010
	4. Draft statutory guidance for local duties on child poverty (Child Poverty Act 2010): report on and response to formal consultation held March to June 2010
	5. The importance of teaching
	6. Review of the Office the Children's Commissioner (England)
	7. Support and aspiration: a new approach to special educational needs and disability; a consultation
	8. A new approach to child poverty: tackling the causes of disadvantage and transforming families' lives
	9. The Munro Review of Child Protection: final report: a child-centred system
	10. Letting children be children: report of an Independent Review of the Commercialisation and Sexualisation of Childhood
	11. Teachers' pension scheme (England and Wales) annual accounts 2010-11: (for the year ended 31 March 2011)
	12. Department for Education annual report and accounts 2010-11: (for the year ended 31 March 2011)
	13. Independent Review of Key Stage 2 testing, assessment and accountability: Government response
	14. Post-legislative assessments of the Education and Inspections Act 2006, Childcare Act 2006 and Children and Adoption Act 2006: memorandum to the Education Committee of the House of Commons
	15. The Government response to the Family Justice Review: a system with children and families at its heart
	(b) The Department has published 72 consultation documents since May 2010. A list of the consultations follows, showing those which have been completed and those which are still running.
	Completed consultations
	1. Independent review of the Office of the Children's Commissioner—Call for Evidence
	2. Consultation on school funding.2011-12: Introducing a pupil premium
	3. Tickell review of the Early Years Foundation Stage—Call for Evidence
	4. Capital review—Call for Evidence
	5. Regulations governing fostering services, children's homes providers and adoption and fostering panels and statutory guidance on children's homes and fostering
	6. Green paper: children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities—Call for Views
	7. Arrangements for placement of children by voluntary organisations and others (England) regulations 2011
	8. Year 1 phonics check consultation
	9. Schools White Paper
	10. Key stage 2 testing and accountability review—Call for Evidence
	11. FE improvement
	12. Tackling child poverty and improving life chances: consulting on a new approach
	13. Independent review of personal, social, health, and economic education
	14. National curriculum review—Call for Evidence
	15. National signposting service
	16. Bailey review on the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood (stakeholder version)
	17. Bailey review on the commercialism and sexualisation of childhood (parents and carers version)
	18. Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability
	19. Financial support for 16 to 19-year-olds in education or training
	20. Ensuring good behaviour in schools: Guidance for governing bodies, head teachers, school staff and employers
	21. Academies' pre-16 funding: Options for the 2012/13 academic year
	22. A consultation on school funding reform: Rationale and principles
	23. Proposed changes to performance management and capability arrangements for teachers
	24. Consultation on the changes to the admissions framework
	25. Consultation on a revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
	26. Establishing a new Office of the Children's Commissioner for England (OCCE): Consultation on legislative proposals
	27. Implementation of the 2010-11 review of education capital (The James Review)
	28. A consultation on school funding reform: Proposals for a fairer system
	29. Proposed changes to the teacher disciplinary and induction regulations following the abolition of the General Teaching Council for England
	30. Qualifications for 14-16 year olds and performance tables
	31. Review of Personal, Social, Health and Economics (PSHE) education
	32. Consultation on proposed increases to contributions for members of the Teachers' Pension Scheme
	33. Changes to the Care to Learn child care support scheme
	34. Sure Start Children's Centre core purpose survey
	35. Auxiliary aids for children with disabilities
	36. Proposed changes to the newly qualified teacher (NQT) induction regulations for England
	37. Proposed changes to allow qualified teachers from further education and from the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to become permanent teachers in English schools
	38. Revised statutory guidance on the roles and responsibilities of the Director of Children's Services and the Lead Member for Children's Services
	39. 16 to 19 funding formula review
	40. Study programmes for 16 to 19-year-olds
	41. Removing the statutory duty to deliver work related learning at key stage 4
	42. Proposed amendment to the school governance (Constitution) (England) regulations 2007
	43. Consultation on the review of inter-country adoption legislation
	44. Call for Evidence for the independent review of early education and child care qualifications
	45. Consultation on revised school premises regulations
	46. The academies (land transfer schemes) regulations 2011
	47. Consultation on the changes to the admissions regulations
	48. Supporting families in the foundation years: Proposed changes to the entitlement to free early education and child care sufficiency
	49. A consultation on revised statutory guidance and regulations for exclusions from schools and pupil referral units in England
	50. Consultation on a revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) (Learning and Development Requirements) (Amendment) Order 2012
	51. The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation: Determination of turnover for monetary penalties
	52. Consultation on proposed changes to the school staffing (England) regulations 2009 to require governing bodies to share information with prospective employers about whether head teachers and teachers have been in capability procedures
	53. Removing the duty on maintained schools to follow the information and communication technology (ICT) programmes of study, attainment targets and statutory assessment arrangements
	54. Consultation on the Raising the Participation Age (RPA) regulations
	55. Children's safeguarding performance information consultation
	56. Consultation on the education (Pupil Referral Units) (Application of Enactments) (England) (Amendment) regulations 2012
	57. Consultation on revised Sure Start Children's Centres statutory guidance
	58. Consultation on draft revised statutory guidance for local authorities on services and activities to improve young people's well-being
	59. New statutory guidance for the induction of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) in England
	60. Proposed changes to allow schools to more easily employ industry experts to work as .instructors in schools
	61. Consultation on school funding reform: Next steps towards a fairer system
	62. Proposed changes to allow initial teacher training (ITT) in Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) from September 2012
	63. A consultation on improving the assurance system for financial management in local authority maintained schools
	64. Reform of alternative provision
	65. Consultation on revision of the education (Independent School Standards) (England) regulations 2010
	Live consultations
	66. Review of regulations and national minimum standards for residential family centres
	67. Consultation on careers guidance for schools, sixth form colleges and further education institutions
	68. Protection of biometric information of children in schools: Consultation on draft advice for proprietors, governing bodies, head teachers, principals and school staff, young people, parents and representative bodies
	69. Safeguarding children: proposed changes to child performance legislation
	70. Regulations for removing the duty on maintained schools to follow the Information and Communication technology (ICT) national curriculum programmes of study, attainment targets and statutory assessment arrangements
	71. Consultation on revised safeguarding statutory guidance
	72. Co-operative parenting following family separation: Proposed legislation on the involvement of both parents in a child's life

Schools: Discipline

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he intends to take to ensure local councils can take action to prevent disparity in the numbers of pupils with behavioural difficulties in maintained and non-maintained schools.

Sarah Teather: holding answer 23 May  2012 
	All local authorities must agree-and operate a fair access protocol which provides a transparent and locally agreed process for securing school places outside of the normal admissions round. All maintained schools and academies must participate in the protocol for their area. These protocols are designed to ensure that access to suitable education is found quickly for those children who are unable to secure a school place and that all schools in an area admit their fair share of children with challenging behaviour.
	Local authorities have specific statutory duties to arrange a suitable school place for all pupils with a statement of special educational needs, taking into account parental preferences and representations as to the school which is named in the statement.

Students: Finance

Stephen McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many and what proportion of eligible students in (a) England and (b) Birmingham have received the minimum guaranteed bursary in each year since 2010.

Nick Gibb: holding answer 3 July 2012
	The 16-19 Bursary Fund, which provides financial support for disadvantaged young people in further education and training, commenced at the beginning of the 2011/12 academic year. Data on the number of £1,200 bursaries awarded during the current year is not available. Provided the necessary regulations are put in place, mandatory data collections will take place from 2012-13 onwards.

Employment and Support Allowance

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when his Department expects to pay Mr John Davies, a constituent of the right hon. Member for Birkenhead, the sum ordered to be paid to him by the employment and support allowance tribunal on 27 February 2012.

Chris Grayling: I will write separately to the hon. Member concerning his constituent.

Housing Benefit

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 
	(1)  how many families received housing benefit in excess of (a) £30,000 and (b) £40,000 in the last year for which figures are available;
	(2)  how many families received housing benefit in excess of £50,000 in the last year for which figures are available.

Steve Webb: The information requested is given in the following table.
	
		
			 Housing benefit (HB) recipients by average yearly award—Great Britain 
			  March 2011 March 2012 
			 All HB 4,869,040 5,014,650 
			 In excess of £30,000 2,170 1,380 
			 In excess of £40,000 450 360 
			 In excess of £50,000 160 110 
			 Notes: 1. Recipients are as at second Thursday of the month. 2. Components may not sum to total due to independent rounding. 3. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 4. SHBE is a monthly electronic scan of claimant level data direct from local authority computer systems. The data is available monthly from November 2008 and March 2012 is the latest available. Methodology: Data is collected on a monthly basis and released as the Single Housing Benefit Extract 100% level data (SHBE). This provides the weekly housing benefit amount for each individual household. The annualised amounts are then calculated by multiplying by 52.18. Source: Single Housing Benefit Extract 100% individual level data (SHBE) March 2011 and March 2012.

Housing Benefit: Lone Parents

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of housing benefit recipients who are in employment are lone parents.

Steve Webb: The information requested is not available.
	The economic status of all housing benefit (HB) recipients is not available. Information is only available for those HB recipients whose claim is not passported: that is for those who do not receive either income support, jobseeker’s allowance (income-based), employment and support allowance (income-based), or pension credit (guaranteed credit). A small proportion of the passported cases will be in part-time employment.
	The available information is shown in the following table.
	
		
			 Housing benefit recipients, non-passported, in employment by family type, Great Britain—March 2012 
			   Of which: are single, with child dependant(s) 
			  All employed Case load Proportion (percentage) 
			 Total 882,890 360,840 40.9 
			 Notes: 1. The data refers to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple. 2. Recipients are as at second Thursday of the month. 3. SHBE is a monthly electronic scan of claimant level data direct from local authority computer systems. It replaces quarterly aggregate clerical returns. The data is available monthly from November 2008 and March 2012 is the most recent available. 4. Passported status does not include recipients with unknown passported status. This data refers to people receiving housing benefit not in receipt of a passported benefit and are recorded as being in employment if their local authority has recorded employment income from either the main claimant, or partner of claimant (if applicable), in calculating the housing benefit award. People receiving passported benefits who are working part-time cannot be identified and are therefore not included in this analysis. 5. Case load is rounded to the nearest 10; proportion to one decimal place. Source: Single Housing Benefit Extract (SHBE).

Jobseeker's Allowance: Wales

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the reasons for the increase in 18 to 24 year olds in Vale of Clwyd constituency claiming jobseeker's allowance for 12 months or more.

Chris Grayling: No specific assessment has been made of the Vale of Clwyd but it is likely to have been affected by the same factors that are driving the national trend. Under previous policies young people were required to move off jobseeker's allowance before they reached 12 months, either to a training allowance or temporary job. Those who later came back to JSA were counted as newly unemployed and this had the effect of holding the number of long duration claims at a much lower level than would have been the case given natural off-flow rates.
	Now individuals taking up work experience opportunities or entering the Work programme remain on JSA until they find a regular job. As their claim is not broken artificially, more young people are staying on JSA and moving into longer durations and the number claiming for 12 months or more is rising. In reality, however, the figures are more closely reflecting the true level of long-term unemployment.
	Taking account of the changes in the way people are counted, nationally the number of 18 to 24-year-olds either on JSA or another form of temporary support is slightly lower now than it was two years ago. Within this there has been a rise in the number on JSA for 12 months or more, as people are no longer moved off benefit automatically. But this has been more than offset by: a fall in the number of short-duration JSA claims, as fewer people are being re-cycled back onto the claimant count; and a fall in the number of people recorded separately because they are on a training allowance or in a temporary job.

Remploy

Ann Clwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the oral answer to the hon. Member for Wansbeck of 25 June 2012, Official Report, column 12, on Remploy, which social enterprise organisations he has met in Wales.

Maria Miller: Since the beginning of 2012, specifically in Wales, I have visited the Porth Remploy factory, Cardiff Remploy Employment Services and Disability Wales.

Social Security Benefits: Barnsley

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many families in Barnsley Central constituency claim housing benefit; and how many such people claim less than £20,000 per annum.

Steve Webb: Statistics on the number housing benefit recipients in Barnsley Central constituency are published on the Department's website at:
	http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/hb_ctb/hb_ctb_parlc_jan11.xls
	Information on how many housing benefit recipients in Barnsley Central constituency who claim less than £20,000 per annum is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.